On Friday 29 January, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, called on the European Union to rethink its socio-economic governance, while ensuring that the post-Covid-19 recovery contributes to reducing poverty and inequality, when he presented the preliminary conclusions of his assessment of the EU's progress in the fight against poverty, inequality and social exclusion.
The EU’s legal and political framework “is ill-suited to combat poverty”, not least because it does not ensure adequate social and fiscal convergence for a fairer distribution of wealth, he said.
And the rapporteur in particular took aim at : - the lack of common thresholds, such as a European minimum wage, to guarantee the right of workers to a decent standard of living and to combat social dumping; - the unanimity rule in tax matters, which prevents the fight against fiscal dumping; - the rules for convergence of macroeconomic policies, which have often led to budget cuts instead of prioritising investment in health care, education and social protection.
As a result, although the EU has experienced steady economic growth and increased employment until recently, it has largely failed to meet its commitment to lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2020, the rapporteur pointed out.
He therefore calls for the EU to “refocus efforts on the reduction of inequalities and on creating the conditions of an inclusive economy”, so that poverty reduction ceases to depend on growth.
Covid-19
The UN expert further expressed concern about the social consequences of Covid-19, when 92.4 million people, or 21.1% of the population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU in 2019.
“I have spoken with people who have experienced hunger for the first time”, said de Schutter.
While welcoming the establishment of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan, the rapporteur deplored the absence of a “reliable methodology” to assess the contribution of Member States’ national recovery and resilience plans to reducing poverty and inequality.
Finally, the rapporteur called for the establishment of an EU strategy to combat poverty including a target to reduce poverty by 50% by 2030, applied equally in all Member States.
The Director of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), Freek Spinnewijn, regretted that the preliminary conclusions do not include a call for a European target to end homelessness by 2030, despite the fact that the number of homeless people in the EU is rising sharply (+70% in 10 years).
In his view, the final report, due in June 2021, should be more inclusive.
See Mr De Schutter’s full statement: http://bit.ly/39rLHz8 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)